Book of Titus - Ch. 3, vv. 2-3

Alrighty here, let's see, where do I want to pick up? Last week we began Titus chapter 3 and pretty much covered verse 1, and even I think, if I'm remembering correctly, he just briefly touched on verse 2, so that's probably where we'll pick up today.

And I'll read the first two verses just to get us started, because it is one thought, one continual sentence by the Apostle Paul here. So in Titus chapter 3, starting at verse 1, it says, So again, we covered verse 1 pretty thoroughly last week, and we'll finish verse 2 here just a second and flow into verse 3, but just a couple of reminders is the way that first verse begins, put them in mind, that is another way of just saying, remind them.

This is something that they've heard before, and they need to be reminded of it again. Now what's amazing about the Bible is, we touched on this briefly last week, but it is written to a specific audience in a specific cultural historical context.

In this case, we're talking about the very pagan island of Crete, and yet the Holy Spirit, being God himself, can write the Bible in such a way as to be directly applicable to those people at that time.

Remember, this is basically a personal letter that Titus is receiving from Paul, but at the same time, it's written in such a way that it is additionally applicable throughout the rest of time. And so we see what Paul is doing here.

He is telling Titus to remind the Cretans to be subject, to be obedient to their government, to their authorities, because this was apparently something they had issue with. They had issue doing, and go figure, they live in a pagan society, there's no, everything is upside down, any sort of moral reference point they have is probably a subjective one, and so, you know, culture can just change on a dime, and people are following their own lusts and pleasures and things like that.

Well, when you have that form of rebellious spirit, which we're going to be talking about more briefly when we get to verse 3, when you have that, it's really tough to be obedient to your authorities in the way that God wants you to be.

So, Paul is reminding Titus to remind his people, as Christians, yes, you were pagan, now you are saved. You're still living in the same society, though, and you still have your old proclivities. You have sin habits that will stick with you for a while as the sanctification process unfolds.

Because of this, remind them, Titus, remind them to be subject or to be submissive to their authorities, to their rulers, to obey, to be ready for every good work, and I believe that's a reference to just being a good citizen, being a productive, contributing citizen.

Obviously, good works fill into everything in the Christian life. And then, he gets to verse 2, so let's take a look at this together. And, I'll say this one last thought as we read verse 2, and I think I said this last week, but when Paul is setting the tone here in verse 1, he's not saying that we have to be okay with just anything that the government does.

We talked about that quite a bit last week. We don't have to just sit back and accept anything the government does without condemning it ourselves as Christians on the basis of biblical truth. But what Paul is saying is that when we do that, when the government comes out and starts trying to legislate sin, which they do quite often, in other words, through their legislation they make sin okay and approved by the government and things of that sort, and perhaps they're funding other just egregious things.

We, on the basis of biblical truth, can stand up and fight back, but the question is how. And what Paul is about to tell us in verse 2 is that the way we do it, one of the ways in which we do it, I would say the normative way, the way in general that we should do it is to do so without being just contentious, rough and tumbling mobsters wanting to go around picking every fight we could possibly find.

Look at verse 2 with me. Right after telling us to be obedient, to be submissive to our authorities, he says to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all.

Men.

So let's break down a couple of these things here. The first one, the first opening phrase of verse 2, to speak evil of no man, it's a single Greek word, that entire little phrase there is a single Greek word, and it's the Greek term blasphemao.

Now this is important because right now we live in what you might call a very empathy driven environment, a very empathy driven culture, society, and many people would love to look at this particular verse, the opening phrase especially of Titus 3 .2, they would love to look at that, kind of jump on it a little bit as a proof that you just need to be compassionate toward every person regardless of what their proclivities are and speak no evil of no one.

You can see how someone might grasp onto that and then all of a sudden go out and start affirming everybody's sin and saying you're okay just the way you are and I'm never going to speak evil of anybody because we're told that we just can't do that.

But again, this is why it's so important to look at what is the term that Paul actually said, what's the term that he actually wrote, what is Paul's intent here, not what can we shoehorn into it so that we can justify or rationalize our behavior out in society, but what did Paul say, what did he mean?

Well what Paul is doing here is he's telling us to when we are out there fighting these fights, fighting the culture war so to speak, out there proclaiming truth when evil abounds, what he's saying is that when we're out there doing that, we shouldn't ever stoop to the level of blasphemy while we do it.

That's the Greek term, blasphemeo, he says we shouldn't stoop down to the level of blasphemy or cursing or contempt toward the people or slander toward the person in the conversation. And by the way, the Greek term blasphemeo, yes it's where we get the term blasphemy from, but really what it's root meaning is is to be a slanderous person.

Well go figure. Of course Christians aren't supposed to be slanderers, even if we are talking to our enemies here, those that are in direct opposition to God's word out in the culture, whether that be our civil leaders or our fellow citizens or whomever they may be.

Even when we are up against them proclaiming God's truth saying look, this actually isn't okay because here is the objective moral standard that condemns what you are saying is okay, we should be able to do that without slandering the person.

You get it?

That's what Paul is saying here. He's not saying that we have to retreat back and just never say anything mean ever or anything that might hurt someone's feelings. He's saying don't be blasphemous about it.

Don't be slanderous about it. But when we proclaim truth, do so in what we are about to look at in a gentle and meek.

Way.

But it's still truth. It's still forceful. It's still authoritative intrinsically because that's what it is. It's truth. It doesn't mean that we are not to address legitimate sin issues when he says speak evil of no man.

It doesn't mean that we are not to do that with truth when it's necessary. Sometimes it's necessary. Sometimes things will be going alright. And that's of course the ideal. We hope and pray for times like that.

But there will be other times when it is necessary to address legitimate sin issues. Let me give you just a few examples. Elijah, when he was mocking the worshippers of Baal, and sometimes they were his own people.

When Paul says speak evil of no man, does he mean just sit back and let anyone do whatever they want all the time? Well, Elijah certainly didn't. When he saw his own people worshipping the false god, he mocked them.

And he mocked them on the basis of how ridiculous it was that they were doing what they were.

Doing.

He's saying you're putting your very eternal souls in harm's way because you are worshipping this false, dumb idol when you know who the true god of the universe is. So he approached them with a mocking tone.

Even Jeremiah often condemned Israel's leaders for what they were doing wrong when they were legislating in sin rather than according to God's law. He would condemn them. Isaiah often prophesied against idolaters, and again we're talking about his own people.

Again, they weren't shying away from speaking the hard truths when they needed to. The question is how did they do it? And of course you get to the New Testament. And you see Jesus' interactions with the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

And you have an absolute master class of rebuke, rebuttal, admonishing, condemning when it's appropriate. Matthew 23 is of course the go-to place for this. You see it in all the Gospels in different spots.

He was constantly just handing it to the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the false leaders of that.

Day.

But Matthew 23, just read it sometime all the way through and just pay attention to the tone with which Jesus is approaching these false teachers. How is he doing it? What does his polemic look like? What are the rhetorical tools that he's utilizing to show them in that moment and then the rest of the world for the next 2 ,000 years how you should approach evil when it manifests as false teaching.

And then of course you have Paul rebuking false teachers sharply with very biting rhetoric in Galatians of course is the preeminent example of that, but in other places too. And then Paul would go and rebuke Peter if he needed to as well.

So I say all this just to simply point out when Paul tells us in this verse, speak evil of no man, he's not saying that we should retreat back and just be quote unquote compassionate to the point that we let everyone continue headlong down into the void because they're refusing not to leave their sins behind them or whatever it may be.

There are times when we have to approach these issues and handle them. We can't leave truth behind. Okay, so when it's necessary, there are times when we have to approach these legitimate sin issues, but when we do, we do so not slanderously and not blaspheming.

That's what the phrase means there, to speak evil of no man. Now after that, Paul tells us not to be brawlers, and this is really interesting stuff. We read these verses and we think, okay, yeah, that sounds good.

I don't consider myself much of a brawler. The thing is, is these particular, I see you back there, dad. These particular sins are more pervasive than they seem on the surface level, and we also have to remember this, that oftentimes brawling begins, well, 100 of the time, brawling begins in the heart, long before it manifests itself in an actual fight out in the street.

Maybe you're going to punch out your liberal congressman as he walks up the steps of the Capitol building. That sort of thing. Well, that begins in the heart long before you go and do that, and so, yeah, we may not be brawlers physically yet, but the thing is, we have to address that inwardly long before it would ever manifest itself in a physical altercation, but with even that aside, we have to think, who's Paul dealing with here on the island of Crete a couple thousand years ago?

Well, he's dealing with the people that had the propensity to go out there and kind of go crazy when they were upset, when they didn't like what was going on, to kind of have these little rebellious uprisings, maybe not necessarily with the civil government figures, but perhaps their law enforcement officers, so to speak, that sort of thing.

And so Paul is saying, we shouldn't be brawlers, and it literally means we're not to be fighters physically at every point of contention. So we get a little bit upset about something, maybe it's a legitimate issue.

Again, we're assuming that the authorities at play here are actually wielding the sword, so to speak, incorrectly. They are actually unjustly running the government. We're assuming that. Even when that's the case, at every point of contention, we're not supposed to immediately get into the physical altercations, punching them out and showing them who's boss or something.

Like that.

We're not supposed to do that. And I think I addressed this a little bit last week, but we have to remember, when you're looking at a teaching of an apostle like this, you have to consider the context with which they're talking, and you have to ask yourself, what are their assumptions here?

And in this case, Paul's assumption is that we're living in a relatively peaceful society. It's not to say the government's not making mistakes, and maybe pretty egregious ones, but it's a society where going out and being brawlers is just not the answer, period.

And that's the context he's talking about here. It doesn't mean that he's condemning self-defense. It doesn't mean that he's condemning violence wholesale when it comes to defending your property, your person, your family.

And it goes without saying, but we've got to point these types of things out. Paul tells us elsewhere that we have weapons that are not carnal. In 2 Corinthians, our weapons are not carnal, but they come from the Almighty God Himself.

And he didn't say that to mean that we can't physically defend ourselves. He was talking about this kind of context here in Titus. This kind of context. In this context, our weapons aren't carnal. They are, we're about to see in a second, meekness and gentleness, and we'll break that.

Down more.

Yes, sir.

Do you think he's speaking to things like the Hamas supporters when they attack the police, or are people that are anti-ICE and they attack the federal agents who are actually arresting people who broke the law?

Whether they're criminals or not, they're lawbreakers. You're illegally and people are attacking to throw rocks at them.

Right. They're brawling.

Absolutely.

Even if we didn't agree with it, we should chuck rocks at them.

Absolutely.

Generally speaking, that's correct. Now, could there be a line crossed where you are being personally attacked, in which case self-defense is necessary? The answer to that is yes, but yes, generally speaking, remember Romans 13, we read it last.

Week.

The government is the minister or the deacon of God, and what is one of their jobs is that servant. It is to wield the sword. It is government's duty to go out there, law enforcement officers, they are the ones that are supposed to bring peace, sometimes through violent means, if there are mobsters out on the street going nuts, destroying property, and threatening other people.

You leave that to them, generally speaking, you leave that to them, and you avoid that for a lot of reasons, and think about the wisdom of God here. He's protecting us. He doesn't want us to be brawlers because he doesn't want us out there doing dumb stuff that will put us in harm's way.

One guy may have a righteous cause, and he wants to go out there and show everybody that I'm going to stand up for this, I'm going to stand up for this cause, I'm going to go out and fight. He does so.

Maybe he takes out some really bad dudes, legitimately bad dudes, but in the process he gets arrested because maybe he's breaking the law in doing so, or something like that. Or he gets just caught up in all of the fray and is wrongly accused of something he didn't do because he's out there brawling, and he's put in jail.

Well now he's away from his family. Now he can't provide for them the way that he should. Now he can't protect them back home, and it opens them up to a lot of vulnerabilities.

As well.

So when God tells us not to be brawlers, he's doing so for multiple reasons. He wants, number one, the government will answer for how they do or do not handle things. So if they allow riots in the streets, it's still their job to handle it, whether they're handling it or not, and they will be held accountable when they meet Jesus face to face one day for whether or not they did anything about it.

It's their job to do it. It is our job to defend our families, to protect our families, unless of course we are called to be a law enforcement officer or something, or we are the mayor, or we are the governor or whatever.

But generally speaking, yeah, we are to remain out of that and again use our non-carnal weapons in most cases. And Paul, so that's 2 Corinthians 10 where Paul uses that particular phrase, but we see it being taught here in this verse as well.

What he's doing is he is alluding to at least one form of weaponry that we do have in our Christian arsenal, and this is all exceptions of self-defense and things like that aside. We addressed it last week in the law of God.

There are provisions for self-defense. It is completely righteous to, even by most extreme means, to protect yourself, your family, and your property. And then Jesus of course tells his disciples to get a sword for their own self-defense.

We know that self-defense is okay, so this is not Paul's going soft on that particular.

Thing.

He's talking about something else. He's talking about our general attitudes toward societal strife against our government and things like that. And he's about to tell us a few of the weapons we have that are not carnal.

Yes, ma 'am?

I think one of the reasons is as Christians, we're here to be known by our love, and we may be 99 of the time known by the love that we show to others, but if you take 1 of that time to go participate in something like that, that's what you're going to be known by.

Sure, yeah.

That's how people are going to know you because the media is going to make a big deal out.

Of it.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, it goes back to God is protecting his people here because even if you go out there just to, I don't know, get involved in a non-violent way, you never know what cameras will pick.

Up.

You never know what kind of mosh pit you'll find yourself in, and you didn't mean to be there, and you're not even the one doing anything crazy, but the cameras pick that up. And now your testimony perhaps has been marred because it's like, well why were you out there.

Doing that?

You look like a madman or something like that. So yes, again, we're being protected when we're told to beware of this kind of attitude when we get really upset about government, government authorities, government officials doing perhaps even legitimately immoral things.

We have to fight it, but we have to fight it according to the biblical standards, the standards that God gives us, and let's take a look at one of them here. This isn't all encompassing, but Paul specifically lists a few.

He says, we do this, a couple of our non-carnal weapons that we have is we do it through gentleness, showing all meekness to all men. Now for those of you that have been attending our Wednesday night classes, you will notice some similarities here in the virtues that we talk about in the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians chapter 5.

Both of these things, meekness and gentleness, are aspects of the fruit of the Spirit. They both flow from love, which we have talked about, the preeminent virtue, the sum of all virtues, and so in this case, what Paul is saying is we approach our government leaders, our fellow citizens, believers and unbelievers alike, with love for a neighbor.

Remember, the summary of the entire law, love your neighbor as you love yourself, and that's what Paul sets the context with in Galatians 5 as he goes into the fruit of the Spirit, and so when we see here to have gentleness and showing all meekness to all men, we are simply fulfilling that commandment.

We are simply loving others the way we would want them to love us, we are treating our neighbors the way we would want them to treat us, because one thing we have to remember when we are out there and we are seeing, whether it is the politicians on the highest level down to the local level, or our fellow citizens that are maybe supporting the things that we know are just plainly immoral, unbiblical, in opposition to God's Word, and they may even be supporting these issues to their own detriment later down the road.

We see all this happening, but we have to remember that our battle, and Paul tells us this in Ephesians 6, is ultimately with the devil. Now, yes, there are occasions where we will have run-ins with his people.

In Romans chapter 1, Paul tells us that there comes a time when human beings are handed over in such a way that there's no turning back, they reach the point of no return, because they, by their own will, have seared their consciences.

Their conscience tells them for years, for decades, stop doing this, don't do this, you're hurting your body, you're hurting other people, it's going to kill you, all these types of things, and they ignore it each and every time.

And God gives them multiple chances from the human viewpoint, Paul spells all this out in Romans 1, to repent, to turn away from it, to turn to God, discover who He is, and they never do it. They refuse to, because they love the pleasures and the lusts of the flesh.

What happens when they reach that point of no return, they become implacable. They are given over to a reprobate mind. And so there are times when we will have run-ins with those people, and they are our enemies,.

Absolutely.

But generally speaking, our battle is ultimately with the devil. And what that means is that the lost world, and that includes our authorities, our politicians, those we disagree with, they're contested territory.

They're not necessarily the enemy. We are fighting for souls here. We have a chance to be the instruments that God uses to bring light into the darkest places you can imagine. And as I heard it once said, these people are contested territory.

They're not necessarily the enemy. They may be right in the middle between the spiritual war of the devil trying to cling to their souls to the point of no return, which happens sometimes, or us in the spiritual battle wielding the armor of God, wielding the non-carnal arsenal that we've been given, fighting for these souls from the human viewpoint.

It's contested territory. We could win them over through our gentle and meek spirits if we are obedient to these commands from Paul here. Now as we'll study more when we get to 2 Timothy, this type of behavior, being gentle, showing meekness to all men, it is potentially, and that's an important word to emphasize here because it's all in God's hands and we know that.

But when we are obedient to these things, and we have this type of behavior, it is potentially transforming in the lives of our fellow citizens and maybe even our leaders that are lost. And I'll show you what I mean by that if you'll turn to 2 Timothy chapter 2 with me.

Like I said a second ago, we'll study this in more detail when we get to 2 Timothy, whenever that'll be. But I want to go ahead and take a look at it with you. And we're all familiar with this passage.

I think I've referenced it probably two or three times in this study. Dad references it often. It's very important for us to keep in mind. And it is a parallel passage with Titus chapter 3, verses 1 and 2.

And you'll see why in just a second. Take a look at it with me. 2 Timothy chapter 2. Let's start in verse 24.

And it says,.

And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle. There's the gentleness. There's the fruit of the Spirit. Must be gentle unto all men. Very similar phrase to what we just read in Titus 2, 2, 2.

Apt to teach, patient. That's another fruit of the Spirit, by the way. In meekness. There's another one. Instructing those that oppose themselves, if God, by chance or paradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him and his will.

Again, we're talking about contested territory here. It's like having the chance to claim new ground that wasn't previously ours. It's ultimately still in God's hands, and that's why Paul uses the term paradventure.

Here.

We have to remember that. But we don't get to sit back, fatalistically, in our armchairs and say, well, God is sovereign, he'll save them if he wants to. Remember, God ordains the means just as much as he ordains the ends.

And guess what the means are for saving people? His people. He uses them to go out, proclaim the gospel, to share the word. He gives the truth in contrast with the lies that they have been deceived by.

We're going to look at deception here in just a second. He uses us to go out there and give the contrast for all of that, so that, again, they can see the light. We are the light. We are the salt. It's our job.

It's our duty. We go out there and we do these things, and there is a chance, potentially, that it has transforming reality to these people. But, again, just look at some of the things. What are the non-carnal weapons that bring this type of victory about?

Where we, in God's name, potentially save eternal souls. What are the weapons that we use here? The servant of the Lord must not strive, kind of parallel with being a brawler, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach.

We've got to be good at teaching and proclaiming the truth. We can't just kind of go out there and say, well, maybe when the time comes we'll be able to articulate it just right. The Holy Spirit expects us to study His Word.

Yes, He moves us. There are times in very dire straits where He may even speak through us in a way. Yes, but generally speaking, the normative way that the Holy Spirit works in our lives throughout all of church history is by us studying His Word that He then brings to remembrance in our minds.

That's how it works. He wrote it. He's the author of it. Of course He wants us to be in His book. So we are to be gentle to all men, apt to teach, patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves.

Those are our non-carnal weapons that we use in this particular battle. It's really, really amazing stuff. So y 'all have any thoughts on that really quick before we move to verse 3? All right, take a look at verse 3 with me.

Back in Titus chapter 3. Now what Paul is about to do is something pretty spectacular. Let's read the verse first.

He says,.

For we ourselves, right after talking about all these things, we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.

Now this is the kind of verse that really can slap someone across the face when they need to be shaken up a little bit, when they need to be reminded, perhaps they're getting a little haughty, perhaps they're a little prideful.

And I'm talking about believers here. Perhaps they get to a point where they feel like they are the sole person in the right in their circle, in their area, whatever. You can come up with a lot of hypotheticals here.

This is the kind of verse that really humbles a Christian. Now Paul is doing something here that's very similar to what he did at the end of chapter.

2.

If you guys remember Titus chapter 2, you have 10 verses of the most practical Christian living instruction that you can imagine. I mean, just he's talking to the old men, the old women, young men, young women, telling them exactly how to behave.

And at the end of the chapter, what does he do? He zooms way out and he reminds them what the basis is for this character. Why he's telling them what he's telling them. Why is he telling young women to be keepers at home?

Is Paul just a misogynist? No, he's being moved by the Holy Spirit to tell them exactly where they can find the most peace and fulfillment and gratification in their life because they are fulfilling something that they were created to do, which is something that men cannot do.

And that is beautify a home, raise children, have children, nurse them, comfort them, nurture them, do all of these things that give sustenance to their husband, yes, but also the future of the following generations.

It's like we said, you don't get King David without Ruth. And so and that was multiple generations before he was born. And so Paul gives all this practical instruction and then he wraps up the chapter by saying you do this.

Why? Because the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness, worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.

And then he goes on to give a proof of the deity of Christ. He goes on to tell us about our future hope when Jesus comes back and the fullness of redemption is here. That is the basis for all of the practical Christian living that he gave in the previous 10 verses.

All right. What does that have to do with chapter three? Well, he's doing the exact same thing again. He's giving us the basis in verse three. He's giving us the basis for our behavior as Christians. He is telling us you are going to act this way and this is why you're going to act this way.

He actually gives us the reason for it. As I've said so many times, Paul isn't telling us to obey the authorities and be gentle and meek to all men because he's just trying to come up with some arbitrary standards for us to follow.

He's not just making this stuff up on the fly. What he's doing is that he is telling us he's showing us the foundation for having these attitudes. And what is that foundation? The foundation is that God was merciful toward us because we were no better than anybody else.

And therefore, we should live in such a way that shows mercy to others. We should live in a way that gives the benefit of the doubt in such a way that our meekness and our gentleness is is kind of the drive train behind our teaching and maybe even our admonishing and rebuke.

Our gentleness and meekness is at the forefront. Why is that? Because that in and of itself is a merciful act rather than just a barrage of yelling or maybe even physically fighting a person that is living in an improper way.

God was merciful to us because we were just like they are. Therefore, we should live this way. Paul is instructing Titus to teach a behavior based upon God's mercy. It doesn't matter how wrong someone has done us personally.

It's not as bad as the wrong that we ourselves did toward God and what ultimately put him on the cross. So in his typical teaching style, Paul gives us some lists. Paul loves lists all throughout the epistles.

You see him everywhere. Lists of virtues, lists of sins, lists of commands, lists of things to avoid. And here we have them yet again. And between verses one and two and look at kind of the harmony or the symmetry here in verses one and two, he gives a list of seven virtues.

In other words, seven positive behavior traits, seven positive ways of living. Positive patterns of good works. And then in verse three, he gives a list of seven sins that summarize our previous conditions of seven in the positive, seven in the negative.

And as you can imagine, it could be a little bit easier for us to not become haughty and prideful toward our civil leaders, even when they fail, or any of our fellow citizens, even when they are failing left and right.

When we put in remembrance the condition that we were in prior to salvation. And that's what Paul is putting at the forefront here. He's saying we were just like they are. We were that too. And so you can't go and say, well, if only you were as good as I was or as good as I am, I'm going to really give you a lesson because I have the moral high ground here.

And by the way, we do. But having the moral high ground legitimately yields the fruit of the spirit. If you people that think they have the moral high ground, perhaps in some kind of moralistic fashion where it's all about the external and not about the heart, they are the ones that ultimately will crash and burn and they don't actually have the moral high ground.

They're in actually a very vulnerable state. But when you have the legitimate moral high ground, because it's based upon God's objective word and not our own standards, it yields the fruit of the spirit, which is gentleness and meekness and not pride at all.

There's no pride whatsoever. It's really amazing the way that all of this works. Let's take a look at some of these terms. Look at verse three a little bit closer. He says, for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish.

Let's start there. The Greek term literally means to be intelligible or to be unwise. We simply did not know what we were doing before we were saved. We had no clue how to live in a harmonious way or a way that actually made any sense.

Maybe we were borrowing the morals of Christianity because it just makes sense. But we were borrowing the morals without recognizing the law giver, the one that gave the moral standards, the Savior himself.

So you live in such a way that's intelligible, a way that is unwise. We didn't know what we were doing. The New Testament talks about the darkened mind of unregenerate humans. And that's how we once were.